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[Commlist] CFP: Alphaville Special Issue – 100 Years of Disney

Wed Jul 19 18:21:09 GMT 2023





CFP: Alphaville Special Issue – 100 Years of Disney

In celebration of the Disney Company’s 100th anniversary on 16 October 2023, Alphaville is announcing a Call for Papers for a special issue dedicated to examining what a century of Disney entertainment means. This issue intends to look at how Disney has evolved, what the current debates are around it (i.e. how the “live action” remakes are being used to address past issues of gender, race, and class), how its different facets – live-action and animated shorts and features, merchandising, theme parks, television (to name the major ones) – function as parts of a whole, and how Walt Disney’s persona is still interwoven throughout this despite his having been dead for more than half the company’s history. As an organising theme for the issue (since “100 Years of Disney” is impossibly broad), the task for the papers is to think about their chosen focus in relation to how the tensions between Nostalgia/the Past and Modernity/Futurism have manifested in Disney’s entertainment outputs. After all, Disney’s integration of Nostalgia with Modernity has played out within Disney in myriad ways throughout its history, going all the way back to Walt’s Laugh-O-Grams studio (1921-23) and its “Jazz Age Fables”.

Likewise, the themes that are central to this examination of Disney are also about how Disney is building its future based upon its past. After all, this is a company that has itself always focused on combining the past (via ideas of “nostalgia”) and the future as a way to address its audience. Usually, these tensions have come about via the interplay between its use of the latest technologies to tell ancient/timeless stories. It has also tended to present the possibilities of the future via optimistic visions of technological promise. This tension between Nostalgia/the Past and Modernity/Futurism is central when looking not only at Disney as an organisation, but also at how Disney itself is celebrating/commemorating its 100th anniversary. It is hoped that, by assembling a collection of papers which look at different aspects of Disney in relation to the issue’s guiding theme, a more nuanced understanding of what Disney is, how it has evolved, and how it has contributed to Western popular culture, will be achieved.

Though some papers have already been selected, others to fill in the gaps are now being sought. These gaps can be filled by looking at some aspect of one of the following topics:

- Walt and Roy Disney – the foundations and relationship between the brothers who founded the company; growing the business, as well as their legacy (individually and jointly)

- Disney Animation – the development of the studio and its relationship with Pixar Animation; the impact of Disney on the animation industry

- The Disney Theme Parks – from creating the concept of the theme park (as opposed to amusement park or fairground) to the way that the theme parks have supported the company in myriad ways, from income to synergistic links

- Imagineering: Before and Beyond – the significance of technology throughout Disney’s history, which intersects the parks, studio content, and marketing

- The Disney Brand – globally recognised and significant in terms of fandom, quality, and brand identification

- Consumer Products and Merchandise – this has been used by Disney for most of its history to communicate itself directly to its fanbase, and has been used throughout this time not only to generate income and offer an emotional connection for customers/fans but also (in the words of Roy Disney in 1931) to keep audiences “Mickey Mouse Minded”

- The Business of Disney – a history of acquisitions and its approach to doing business, past and/or present

We will of course be open to receiving abstracts on topics beyond those listed here, particularly those that engage with the expansion and development of an aspect of the Disney Company.

If you are interested in contributing to this special issue, please send a 300-word abstract, 3–5 keywords, and a short biography by 15 September 2023 to (a.davis /at/ hull.ac.uk).

Authors will be notified of decision by 6 October 2023. Following acceptance, authors will be required to submit their completed articles of between 5,500 and 7,000 words in length that fully adhere to Alphaville Guidelines, MLA and House Style by 5 January 2024. Articles will undergo peer-review.

Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media

https://doi.org/10.33178/alpha

Please note that Alphaville is a diamond open access peer-reviewed journal. No payment from the authors will be required.


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